"It could easily be general principle. I plan to send a delegation later, either one of my manifestations or some local mortals or both, and see what else I can find out that way. And I will see about borrowing copies of their books."

"I wonder how they get their information. They could have filtered or partial details from - spies or piggybacked transmissions or something."

"Yes. I'm consulting a few people about that."

"The Capitol have to have known in their own right, I wonder why no one told you. Thought you knew, thought it'd be awkward with anyone who found out they'd said, thought it needed careful handling and didn't have a careful proposal ready to go in time..."

"The Capitol is enough of a continuing mess that I fully believe the information simply hadn't yet found its way into the hands of anyone who both wanted to tell me and knew I should be told."

"Fair enough. Are you having any luck extracting useful tech insights in spite of the mess to send back to Lianem?" (She has settled on this name for his other continent because it's got a nice parallel with "Panem" and is easier to pronounce than some others.)

"Nothing immediately useful; plenty of things that will be very useful eventually."

"Cool. I would've wanted the help even if I didn't think we'd be a net improvement but I'm glad we are."

"Even if you'd been behind my world in terms of technological development, adding this many people to my population is going to be immensely helpful. And you have an entire planet to expand into."

"I think there are other landmasses," she mentions. "Or there wouldn't be a reason to have the krakens in the way."

"Yes. But even if there weren't any, I could create some. I'm likely to raise more land at the edges of this continent regardless."

"Maybe not extending from the edge of Four, because we're accustomed to boating and used to the currents and coastline, but from the other edges sure."

"I'll start wherever the local residents most want me to, of course. But in a few hundred years the residents of Four may feel differently. The coastal provinces of Lianem do sometimes request land extensions even though they all use boats."

"Oh, yeah, I meant in the shorter term. Once the district industries aren't enforced I bet they'll flatten out a lot and it won't be such a strong concern for Four in particular to recognize the coast."

"Oh, of course. I think of land extensions in the very long term, generally, but I realize now that wasn't clear."

"Oh. Yeah, I don't usually think all that much about things that will happen after I am dead." Pause. "...There are things other than 'a way to overthrow the Capitol' that I could look for in Milliways."

"Things such as?"

"Like... one of the people who mistook me for one of my alts who took over a world said that the relevant alt was a vampire. An immortal vampire."

"...I'm not sure what I think of 'vampire', but distributable immortality would be... extremely helpful."

"I know, right? There's probably other ways to do it, it'll depend on who comes through. But I found you."

"You did. And I would be happy to pay for you to stay in Milliways indefinitely searching for solutions to mortality."

"Then the next time I find a door I'll park there and do that. Especially if you'll help me keep in touch with my parents."

"Of course. When I experiment with opening doors to desired locations, would you like to be the target?"

"Yes."

"I'll do that, then. When I feel comfortable sparing an unknown amount of power to it."